Automatic timer for starting elevators.



G. H. ROI/IIE.

AUTOMATIC TIIIIER FOR STARTING ELEVATORS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG- II, 1913.

. 'lfg l Patented June I9, T917.

. UNITED STATES PATE OFFICE.

GEORGE H. ROWE, OF BERWYN, ILLINOIS, ASSIGrNCL'FJ TG L. E. KING, 0FBERWYN, ILLINOIS.

AUTOMATIC TIMER FOR STARTING ELEVATORS.

Specification of Letters atent.

Patented June 19, 1917.

Application led August 14, 1913. Serial No. 784,688.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, GEORGE Rom citizen of the United States, residing atBerwyn, in thev county" of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented acertain new and useful Improvement in Automatic Timers for StartingElevators, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exactdescription.

My invention relates to automatic timers for starting elevators.

The object of my invention, Agenerally speaking, is to provide means forautomatically giving signals, both to ascend and descend, at regular,predetermined intervals, said means permitting adjustment of the `timeinterval and of the relation of the ascending to the descending signals.My invention has as further contributory objects:

To provide a motor regulating resistance calibrated for definite timeintervals;

To provide a plurality of mechanically actuated circuit-closing deviceshaving improved means for adjusting the relative arrangement thereof tovary the sequence of the signals; l

To provide manual adjusting means which may be mounted independently ofthe rest of the apparatus and hence located where it is readilyaccessible;

To provide a device which is simple, durable, efiicient and in which thedesired time intervals are maintained accurately for indefinite periods.Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the descriptionhereinafter given.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated one embodiment of myinvention Awhich I have worked out in practice and which has manyadvantages from a commercial standpoint. The invention may be embodiedin other forms however.

Figure 1 is a plan view, partly in section, of the preferredconstruction.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the circuitclosing contacts;

Fig. 3 is an. enlarged elevation of said contacts; 4'

Fig. 4 is an elevation of the rheostat;

Fig. 5 is a circuit diagram showing one form of connections for therheostat; and

Fig. 6 is a diagram showing a different form of connections therefor.

Fig. 7 is a diagram of a bank of elevators provlded with the timingdevices.

The apparatus shown comprises, in the main, a motor driven gear trainfor rotating a pair of contacts to cause the latter to close twocircuits periodically ant'- an adjustable resistance for varying thespeed of the motor.

The motor l, which is of the shunt wound type, drives a suitable trainof gears 2, 3, 4, 5, whereby a shaft (S is rotated at a less rate thanthe armature shaft. The motor and said gear train are inclosed within asuitable casing or housing 7 through which the shaft 6 projects. Saidshaft is provided with a suitable collar 8 thereon which carries aresilient contact 9. Beyond said collar a disk l0 is arranged. A secondcollar 11 fits loosely over said shaft on the opposite side of said diskfrom said first collar and carries a second resilient contact 12. Saidsecond collar is clamped in position by means of a special cone-shapednut 13, whereby the contact 1Q may be arranged in any desired positionangularly with respect to the contact 9. These rotating contacts areadapted to engage suitable stationary contacts 14, 15, respectively,thereby closing two circuits at regular intervals so as to give thedesired signals to ascend and descend. Said contacts are mounted on asuitable support 16 preferably made of insulating material, saidcontacts being so arranged that each is engaged by its rotating contactwithout one interferingv with the other in any manner. The two circuitsmay have a common return conductor connected to the housing at the point17, although the circuit connections may be effected in various otherways. A suitable circuit arrangement is shown in Fig. 2, in whichcurrent for actuating the bells B, B, when the circuits therefor areclosed at the contacts 14 and 15, respectively,is supplied by thebattery X. The said signals need not necessarily be produced by bells,as any suitable means for indicating to the operators that it is time tobegin the ascent or the descent, may be employed. Furthermore, theascending and descending signals need not necessarily be produced bydevices that are independent of each other structurally, as long as theindications are distinctive, so that the operators will not confuse theascending signal with the descending signal. For this purpose it isconvenient to have separate signals such as illustrated herein, onelocated at or near the top of the bank of elevators, and the otherlocated at or near the bottom thereof.

As shown diagrammaticaliy in Fig. 5, the motor comprises an armature lhand a shunt field coil 19, the latter having in series therewith` thevariable resistance Q0 preferably of a sliding contact type,yillustrated more fully in Fig. l. The resistance wire, as is customary,is wound on a. suitable support :2l from which it is insulated, saidsupport heilig provided at opposite ends with suitable brackets or lugs222.). whereby the rheostat may be suitably mounted. A square rod :23 iscarried by said brackets and supports a sliding block 24, the latterbeing provided with ai pointer 25 which operates in conjunction with agraduated scale 26. Said s 'ale is graduated to read directly inseconds, the proper graduations being obtained originally by calibation, whereby either of the circuits may be closed'at regularpredetermined intervals` 'merely by adjusting the pointer to theposition indicating` the desired time interval. This adjustment variestheY energization of the field windings, accompanied by a change in thespeed of armature rotation` thereby varying the timing of the contactclosers.

A switch 27 is provided whereby the supply circuit may be opened vinadjusting the resistance. I find that this arrangement is desi able toprevent variations which would otherwise occur due to the residualmagnetism of the motor. By opening said switch, however, the calib ationof the resistance becomes definite due to the fact that the magnetismbuilds up froln a minimum value to the desired value. It is obvioustherefore, that in attaining this result, the switch need notnecessarily be opened before the resistance is varied, although suchorder of operation is to be preferred as the operator is less liable tooverlook the opening of said switch, than if he deferred the operationuntil after the resistance had been adjusted. In Fig. 5, where theresistance is in series with the field, the brushes 2S may be made 0fcarbon, as is customarily done. In Fig. 6, wherein, as a modifiedarrangement, I have shown the resistance 20 connected in the armaturecircuit the brushes 29 are made preferably of copper. If made of carbon,the wide variations of current therethrough would cause changes in theresistance thereof which. would destroy the accuracy of the timingdevice. lith said resistance in the motor circuit, however, the switchabove described may be omitted. In addition to the various arrangementsdescribed above, it is apparent that the gear ratio may be changed togive different calibrations, using motors having the samecharacteristics.

In Fig. 7 I have shown diagrammatically a bank of elevators 30representing the floors of a six story building, although the system Inpractice the motor and the remaining parts associated directly therewithmay be located in any suitable storage space, even though somewhatremote from the bank of elevators` for example, in thc vbasement of abuilding. The resistance, being independent structurally of said motor,may be loated in a convenient position near the foot of the bank ofelevators as nlay also the switch. whereby the starter may adjust thepointer froln time to time to accommodate the traflic which changes involume during different hours of the day. The rotating contacts are notadjusted as often as the resistance. Said contacts are adjustedinitially to meet the requirements of ay given bank of elevators andthereafter their relation is practically fixed. Their initial adjustmentdependson the height of the building, the speed of the elevators, theamount of lt afh'c and the desirability of having the cars standing fora longer time at the bottom than at the-top. For example, each car maybe made to wait twenty seconds at the bottom but only ten seconds at thetop, the greater time interval at the bottom being utilized in emptyingand filling the car. In all prior devices with which I am familiar thereis an equal interval of delay both at the top and the bottom, whichequal intervals are objectionable as they do not permit the operation ofthe cars in the most efficient manner. A further advantage of my deviceis that the same standard equipment may be sold in substantially allcases for use under widely different conditions in different buildings.Since only a single ascending signal and a single descending signal areemployed regardless of the number of elevators in a bank, no variationin the number of lampe or other signals is called for and nosubstitution of parts is required, as is the case with certain priordevices, but merely a simple adjustment of the parts of the standardequipment.

Although I have described the timing contacts as being adjustable bychanging the rotating contacts, it is apparent that the adjustmentmay-be otherwise effected. Furthermore, distinctive ascending .anddescending signals do not necessarily require two independent circuits,and therefore I do not limit myself to such plurality of circuits.Various other changes in the arrangement of parts and in the structuraldetails may, of coursefbe made and in fact the invention may be embodiedin various other forms Withsol out departing from the spirit of theinvention so long as said other forms or changes descending, one signalserving for all elevators in each case, means for operating each of saidsignals at the same regular intervals, means for varying the length ofsaid intervals, and means for varying the relative timing of theascending and descending signals independently of the said adjustment oftheir timing interval.

2. A signaling device for elevators comprising two signals only, meansfor operating each of said signals at predetermined intervals inaccordance with the number of cars operating, and independent means foradjusting the period between the operation of one of said signals andthe operation of the other of said signals to vary the relative periodsof rest of said cars when reversing their direction of travel.

3. A `signaling system for a plurality of elevators, comprising a singleelectrically actuated ascend signal, a single electrically actuateddescend signal, circuits therefor, means for periodically closing saidcircuits at intervals which may be varied to accord with the number ofcars in use and means for adjusting the period between the operation ofsuccessive signals, to provide for variation in the volume of traiic.

4. The combination with a bank of ele vators, o a signal at the bottomof the bank for starting all the elevators u ward at equal intervals,and a signal at Vt e top of the bank for starting all the elevatorsdownward at the same equal intervals, a source of current having twoarallelcircuits therefrom in each of whic one of .said signals isincluded, a rotatable timing device and coperating contacts for closingsaid re'- spective circuits, a shunt-wound motor for rotating saidtiming device, said motor operating with a weak eld and having aresistance in the field circuit, a graduated scale calibrated toindicate time intervals, a pointer associated with said scale andcontrolling said resistance, and a switch for opening the motor circuitconcurrently with the adjustment of said resistance whereby when any newadjustment of the field strength is made, the motor magnetization buildsup from a minimum to the desired value, resulting in the same speed ofarmature rotation for successive adjustments to the same -point on thescale, and insuring uniform timing of said elevators.

5. In a timing device for elevators, a lpair of relatively fixedcontacts, a pair of movable contacts, circuits therefor comprisingsignals, each of said movable contacts being adapted to engage one ofsaid fixed contacts to close a circuit, one of said circuits operatingto give the Signal to ascend and the other of said circuits operating togive the signals to descend, a shunt motor for driving said movablecontacts, a variable resistance in the eld circuit of said motor tocontrol the timing of said signals and means permitting adjustment ofthe relative arrangements of the various contacts to vary the relativeperiods of said ascending and descending signals.

6. In a device of the character described,

4the combination with a shunt-wound motor,

of a variable resistance for determining the speed of said motor, ascale associated with said resistance, said scale being graduated toindicate time intervals, timing signals operated b said motor and meansfor insuring a efinite predetermined armature speed for each and everyvariation of said resistance.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe [my name this 12th day ofAugust, A. D.,

GEORGE H. ROWE.

Witnesses:

MGCLELLAN YOUNG,

Guo. B. JONES.

